Ratio Rally – Gluten Free Bread

If ever there was a gluten free baking challenge, this would be it – BREAD!

Most bread depends on gluten to succeed – gluten is that versatile protein that when developed, forms a strong air-trapping network allowing bread to create that characteristic structure and crumb. In a gluten free bread, the goal is no different, but it does become a bit of a chemistry experiment – how can we recreate that thick crust and inside soft airy pockets without what many would consider a very essential component to what makes bread, well, bread?

There’s not an obvious answer, and it’s partly why there are so many terrible gluten free bread products out there on grocery shelves. Available gluten free recipes range as much in proportions as they do in ingredients, so baking it on one’s own can seem an incredibly daunting task. My previous efforts have never been that hot either – most times I’ve tried bread I end up with some sort of baked product that kinda tastes like it should be bread, but is no fluffier than when it first went in the oven – i.e. a dense brick. We’d tried to make it work and convince ourselves a solid block of bread is acceptable, but it’s not. And given the cost of the ingredients that goes into making it, I’ve been reluctant to try again – our current solution has been that since we’ve found a GF store-bought bread that we like, we simply reserve meals containing bread as a special treat and just buy the pricey GF bread slices when we need them.

Karen of Cooking Gluten Free gave the ratio rally the ultimate challenge, and I’m not one to back down from trying simply because I’ve been intimidated in the past. The last time I tried baking a loaf of bread, it was before I knew about using weights and ratios. Seriously, it’s been years since I’ve attempted a crusty bread. I really had resigned myself to thinking that bread was just something I don’t do. But this month presented me with the opportunity and motivation to see what I could do. I know a lot more now than I did three years ago, maybe my experience and chemistry knowledge can count for something this time!

Knowing that this is not an area of expertise for me, I didn’t want to go in blindly. I did what I usually do, start with a recipe I find online. Maybe some consider this cheating, but I don’t. Not when I need to make sure I’ve got technique correct, and knowing that I likely won’t have half of the correct ingredients to start with anyways, there will be enough guesswork and testing involved to give me a decent challenge. I have had Jeff and Zoe’s Gluten Free Crusty Boule (from Artisan Bread in Five) recipe bookmarked in my browser since the day it was posted online over two years ago, and had always wanted the right excuse to try to go for it. They even have a great youtube video up explaining their method which I found super helpful in understanding what type of texture I was looking for in the dough at various stages. AND most important for the ratio rally, a list of weights for their ingredients – this means that when I do have to make substitutions for ingredient availability, I can substitute by weight and have a shot at something coming out well – after all, that is one of the whole reasons for doing the ratio rally, yes? Not just that we can substitute GF ingredients by weight to convert conventional recipes to GF, but in cases where the chemistry is going to be radically different (such as bread), we can use weights and ratios to play with recipes with much better success.

Overall, this recipe is fairly straightforward – you have your flours, yeast, salt, and gum for dry ingredients, and for wet ingredients eggs, water, fat and a little honey. Their flour ratio is similar to what I would start with – about 40% starch. Tapioca starch is easy enough for me to find, though I do not have access to either the brown rice four or sorghum called for in the recipe. Instead I used white rice flour which has less protein and definitely behaves differently than brown rice flour, and in place of sorghum used a 50/50 mixture of teff and fine ground millet. And of course all of my replacements were by weight, not volume!

A lot of people I know prefer not to use hydrocolloids in gluten free baking due to sensitivities or other reasons, but GF bread is one place I’ve found them essential for a chance at a successful product (in my very limited experience). I find their effect is to help retain water within the dough, keeping it more hydrated and less likely to turn in to a dry crumbly mess, as well as helping a dough’s ability to trap air (very important if you need the product to rise, especially in a slower process such as when using yeast compared to say, baking powder/soda). I normally don’t see much difference between using guar gum vs. xanthan gum in the end result (this primer by Bob’s Red Mill on the two gums explains when one might be better than the other) , though I have heard that using a blend of the two results in a synergistic thickening – i.e. if you have a little of both you get more binding than the two would contribute separately. Guar gum is the gum we have easiest access to, so that’s what I used. Those were the only major changes I did, else I stuck to the recipe.

Why are there eggs and fat in a GF bread recipe? Typically all conventional bread technically needs is yeast, salt, flour and water to work. Mark Bittman’s minimalistic no-knead bread works with just these four ingredients, but you would be hard pressed to find an equally minimalistic GF recipe working out well. Nearly every GF bread recipe I’ve seen contains both eggs and fat. Eggs have protein – while proteins in eggs don’t behave like gluten, they do help in creating a good crumb and texture. They are also leavening agents, and can helped baked goods rise – a constant challenge for GF things. As for the oil, my guess is that it helps to keep the product moist and avoid that all too frequent dry-crumbly texture.

So how did my version come out?

Not half bad. Definitely the most successful bread I’ve ever made. There was a crust, there were air pockets, it was soft even the next day. And the millet and teff gave it a really nice flavor. My main issue was the size. My dough, during its final resting phase before going into the oven, spread out into a thin disk rather than staying in a nice round boule shape. But it did rise to twice its height in the oven, which is definitely encouraging, though it is not so much a boule in the end – as you can see. It made great bread for spreading jam or butter on in the mornings, or dipping in artisan extra virgin olive oil at dinner. But it would be tricky to turn this into a sandwich. I thought maybe my dough was too wet and that was my issue, so I tried again using less water and actually had no change in the end result (other than the bread dried out faster after baking). I’m beginning to think the issue may actually be the use of guar gum – the Bob’s Red Mill post I linked to above states that xanthan gum is the best choice for yeasted breads, and maybe my result is proof of that. If I can get some xanthan gum in the future, I’d like to try replacing the guar gum or even maybe using a combination of the two and see how that helps it. I also baked these loaves at twice the size compared to the original, and maybe the weight of the doubled size of loaf kept it flatter as well. I just felt that a loaf half the size of what I made would have been too small to cut into slices, but that may have been a poor judgement on my part.

But I’m not disappointed in my result. Actually quite happy. I did everything you’re not supposed to do when you make a new GF recipe – I made tweaks to it, made substitutions, and also changed some of the method all on the first try, and expected a successful and similar result. ha! But despite all my changes, I really liked this bread. I will make it again, and keep tweaking til I can get something I can make with the ingredients I have available. I attribute most of the success of this to my experience in the Ratio Rally and the premise of being able to make substitutions by weight. If you ever are going to tweak and play with GF recipes, go get yourself a scale – I promise, it helps!

Dissolve yeast in 2/3 cup warm water and add honey and let proof about 15 minutes. The original recipe adds yeast directly to the dry ingredient mixture, but I’ve always proofed the yeast a little first (habit maybe?) to get them happy, and decided to use the honey to help them along.

Combine the rice flour, millet flour, teff flour, tapioca starch, salt, and guar gum in a large container (make sure your container has a lid available). Stir in the yeast, water, eggs, and olive oil gradually and mix until it becomes a smooth albeit a bit goopy/runny dough.

Let dough rest loosely covered about 2 hrs and then seal with the lid and let it rest in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, remove the dough from the fridge. It should be a bit stiffer and have a little more structure than before. Divide the dough in two and place each half on a sheet of parchment paper – note using wet hands will help keep it from sticking to you! Shape each round with your hands (dip your hands in water repeatedly to keep from sticking) until you get nice smooth rounds. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest about 90 minutes more.

About an hour into the resting, preheat the oven to 500 F (260 C) with a large dutch oven inside. If you don’t have a dutch oven in which to bake the bread, an alternate method I’ve found (especially if your oven isn’t huge) is to place a large casserole dish filled with hot water on a lower rack – this will create the steam and humidity to help make a nice crust – and then heat your baking stone/baking sheet on a rack above that.

When ready to bake, sprinkle with corn meal or coarse ground millet, make some shallow slices on top of the bread, and then transfer the dough (and the parchment paper) into the dutch oven (or onto your baking surface). Bake covered about 20 minutes (if you aren’t using a dutch oven, just use some foil to loosely cover it – actually one time I forgot to cover it with foil and it turned out fine too). Then turn the heat down to 450 F (230 C), uncover, and bake 20 minutes more. I tapped it to see if it sounded a bit hollow to test if it was done.

Remove bread from the oven and let cool. Slice and spread or dip whatever deliciousness you want on it. Actually, it’s pretty good fresh and hot out of the oven too.